Microsoft's $30 Billion Vista Bump — It turns out someone does like Windows Vista, along with Office and the other stuff Microsoft sells. Indeed, the company sold $1.1 billion more of that stuff in the second quarter than analysts expected. The company's profits rose by 23 percent.

Microsoft Results Turn Heads — Despite reliable growth, Microsoft's unsexy stock has often failed to attract jaded investors. Its spectacular first-quarter earnings have changed that — For the last several years, Microsoft (MSFT) has made good on a promise to beat the "law of large numbers …

Memo to Mark: BoomTown Is Baaaack and We're Still Dubious! — Please see this disclosure related to me and Google. — Well, we're glad it's done, our conflict of interest shoved aside by the hey-big-spenders at Microsoft and we can again resume our incredulous analysis of the insane $15 billion valuation of Facebook.

Prism — Personal computing is currently in a state of transition. While traditionally users have interacted mostly with desktop applications, more and more of them are using web applications. But the latter often fit awkwardly into the document-centric interface of web browsers.

Facebook's Stock Options — Cash is good, and Facebook, following its $240 million investment from Microsoft, now has plenty of it. It might have much much more if reports prove true that other investors have, or will soon, join in. With those lofty sums, Mark Zuckerberg and his crew …

Zune 1-Click Podcast Subscriptions — Podcasters can now plan to display a Zune icon or chicklet graphic on their websites to enable an easy "1-Click Podcast Subscription" process for podcast listeners or viewers. This 1-Click process will launch the new Zune Marketplace software and place …

In Depth: Apple's Leopard leaps to new heights — A refined look, revamped apps and new options build on an already solid OS foundation — It's been two years, five months and 26 days since Apple Inc. last released a new operating system — the longest gap between releases since the company first released Mac OS X six years ago.

Leopard backpedals again: No more iPhone note syncing — Looks like Apple now believes that it has said a little too much with the new Leopard feature pages. Yesterday it backpedaled on letting us use an AirPort Disk with Time Machine, and now it appears as though all references to the iPhone …

Forget Silicon Valley for a Startup, Try NYC Instead — Last week Paul Graham said Silicon Valley was the only place worth being, if you want to have the best chance for success in launching your own Internet startup. This week Charlie O'Donnell has broken down and dissected the idea …

Ad Infuse, for highly targeted mobile advertising — Ad Infuse is ready to serve you targeted ads on your cellphone — and may surprise you with how much it knows. — The company can pinpoint a user's age, gender, income level, and location, among other things.

Scammers get jail time for Microsoft software scheme — Four people have been sentenced to jail time and tens of millions of dollars in fines for buying discounted Microsoft software and then illegally reselling it at a profit. — Mirza Ali, 60, and Sameena Ali, 53, the husband-and-wife owners …